


see you again

by bothsexuals



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: M/M, Reunions, idk just read it i dont have that much time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:35:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26729038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bothsexuals/pseuds/bothsexuals
Summary: Four years ago, Troy left, and after a while Abed stopped hearing from him altogether. And now here he is, in Abed's favorite bar in LA.
Relationships: Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Comments: 18
Kudos: 121





	see you again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [liquidnitrogen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/liquidnitrogen/gifts), [sapphicpaint](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphicpaint/gifts).



> The Juleses bullied me into writing this. J-Bird drew a sexy drawing for it so everyone go follow @giveintomay on twitter to see when they post it. I have a little time now so I am posting it. If it's worse than usual it's because I wrote in on my phone during short periods of free time and you should simply be thankful you are receiving any content at all HONESTLY!! Love ya.

Abed stared at the man on the other side of the bar. It couldn’t be. He was out in Los Angeles with his coworkers, he hadn’t seen him in years, what were the chances of him being there? It couldn’t be. The man laughed, the bright sound tickling Abed’s ears. It had to be. 

Troy Barnes. Four years later. In the one bar in LA Abed could stand to be in. What were the chances? 

He looked the same. Well, not really, he looked extremely different. For starters, he had a beard. His hair was longer, he had a couple tattoos on his arms that Abed really ached to get closer and see, and there was a sad look in his eyes that Abed didn’t remember seeing before. He recognized it though, he saw it in Annie’s eyes and in his own. It had more to do with the man sitting on the other side of the bar than he’d like to admit. But he looked the same, in the way he made Abed's heart skip a beat with his smile. 

“Abed?” He turned towards his friend Bill, who was looking at him with concern in their eyes. They put a gentle hand on his shoulder and asked, “You good, bud?” 

“Yeah,” Abed said with a nod, “just—just thought I saw someone I used to know.” 

Bill nodded and gave him a sweet smile, which Abed tried his best to return. “They freed up a booth,” Bill said, gesturing to the booth where their other coworkers were now sitting, “I got you a beer. Come when you’re ready.” Abed nodded, and Bill pressed a quick kiss to the top of his head before leaving him. 

Abed would go, have fun with them, forget he’d ever seen Troy. That was the best choice, wasn’t it? 

But he couldn’t resist one last look. He deserved that at least. 

He turned back towards Troy, expecting him to still be looking elsewhere, but as luck would have it, his old friend turned just as Abed did, and they locked eyes from across the bar. 

He couldn’t tear his gaze away as Troy’s eyes widened and he dropped the drink he was holding, the sound of shattering glass startling everyone but Abed—because all Abed could hear was Troy’s surprised cry of, “Abed?!” 

///

“What were you drinking?” Abed asked as soon as Troy got close. 

Troy gaped at him, but answered, “Long Island,” and Abed gestured at the barkeep to make another one. They sat in silence, both watching them skillfully prepare the drink, until they handed it to Troy and there was no excuse for the silence to continue. 

“I'm sorry,” Troy said immediately, his voice so drenched in emotion that Abed couldn't doubt him for a second. 

“You disappeared,” he said, “one day you were there and then—we thought you might have died. Annie was terrified.” He didn't mention just how terrified he was too. He didn't think he had to. 

Troy sighed, staring at his drink rather than Abed, needlessly mixing it. “I got taken by pirates. They kinda took everything I had. And that went on for… longer than I like to think about. And once they freed us I had to go through a whole… post-pirate-abduction rehabilitation and then before I knew it two years had passed and I had no idea how to reach you.”

Abed hummed. “Shouldn't have deleted all social media.”

Troy chuckled bitterly and looked at Abed. “No, man, that made it really hard. I went around trying to find some yellow pages but it was no use.” He sighed. “A couple weeks ago, I saw this article. It was about a movie filming in LA and well, I'd kinda been reading every article about movies just in case there was something about you on there.”

Abed's heart skipped a beat. He thought Troy had forgotten about him, or worse, died. And instead he was out there, looking for him. Abed suddenly wished he hadn't given up either.

“And there was!” Troy continued. “ _Co-written and co-directed by talented novice Abed Nadir_ ,” he recited, as if he'd read it so many times he now knew it by heart. Abed's heart skipped another beat—maybe he had. 

“So I came to LA. And then I realized I didn't really know how to find you—LA's pretty big, man! But my neighbours invited me out for a drink tonight, and I said yes because it sounded better than sulking at home by myself, and now—” he emphatically waved his arms towards Abed “—and now here you are! And you—” he looked Abed up and down, taking note of every small change in his appearance since he last saw him “—you look amazing.”

Abed's heart jumped to his throat. 

“You got some tattoos,” he mumbled.

“I did!” Troy replied with a smile, extending his arm so that Abed would get a better view of them.

Abed stared at them for a few seconds, then reached out, letting his fingers hover just above them—almost touching, but not quite. 

“Do they mean something?” he asked. 

Troy bit his lip. “This one,” he pointed at the tattoo of a waterlily on his right forearm, “I got that after seeing Monet's waterlilies, because I remembered Annie going on a rant about how much she loves them.”

Abed smiled. He remembered that too. 

Troy raised his left hand, showing off the spider tattoo on it. “Spider-Man, of course,” he explained, then pointed at the side of his neck, “the Lost numbers, because that show is great and you love it. I got one one day—not one of these, I'll show you someday—and it kind of unlocked tattoos for me, so I got one whenever I would dock and see a nice looking tattoo shop. Not ones with scary-looking super muscled tattooed dudes.” He shuddered at the thought.

Abed nodded, still staring at his arms. “What about the rest?” he asked, and pointed to a tattoo of a TV, a heart on the screen, and next to it a camera, “Like these.” 

Troy's gaze softened and he whispered, “Those are for you.” He pointed at a bowl of noodles on his left arm and a bowl hat that looked like Inspector Spacetime's. “So are those. And—” he raised his right hand, and brought Abed's attention to his ring finger. 

Abed gasped softly, “That's—” 

“The day we met,” Troy finished for him, then lowered his hand. He sighed and raised it again, this time to place it over Abed's, which was resting on the bar counter, and started to speak, his voice filled with emotion. “Abed, I—”

“Hey, Abed, you coming?” a bright voice interrupted him, and both of them turned to look at its source.

“Brian,” Abed said, sounding a little startled, “yeah, just—just a moment.”

“This a friend of yours?” Brian asked, nodding in Troy's direction with a little smirk. 

“This—this is Troy.” 

Brian's eyes widened. “ _That_ Troy?” 

“ _That_ Troy,” Abed replied. Troy's hand was still on his, so he turned his own over to hold it. “My Troy.” 

“Holy shit, dude,” Brian said with an incredulous laugh, “oh my god. This is—hi, man, I'm Brian, by the way—holy fuck, I'll just—” he slapped Abed's back “—this is your moment, dude,” he whispered, “rom-com time.” And with that he headed back to the booth, surely to tell everyone else not to disturb the two men. 

“Should we get out of here?” Abed said, completely flustered, "I mean, my apartment is close enough. And my roommate is Bri, and he's over there—” he gestured at the table “—so we should be alone.” 

“Alone,” Troy repeated, nodding slowly, “Yeah, good.” 

He took his hand off of Abed's, who immediately felt its absence, but he thankfully offered it again as soon as he stood up. Abed took it and led him out of the bar, pointedly rolling his eyes at Bill who gave him a wink and a thumbs-up as he walked past them. 

“It's just like, a block away,” he said, his face lit by the bar's neon sign. 

“Lead the way,” Troy said with a smile, and let himself be guided by Abed, the way he had so missed all those years away from him. 

He spoke up after a few minutes, acutely aware of the warmth of Abed's hand in his. 

“Your movie,” he said, “what is it about?” 

“You'll laugh,” Abed bashfully replied. 

“I won't,” Troy reassured him, “unless I'm supposed to.” 

“It's a romance,” Abed mumbled. 

“I thought you didn't do romances,” Troy teased. 

“So did I,” Abed replied. He pointed at a building and said, “Here we are.”

Troy stayed silent as he opened the front door, led him up the stairs and into his apartment. 

“So what changed?” he asked as soon as the door closed behind them. Abed turned around, and Troy suddenly felt cornered, trapped between the door and him, with that intense look in his eyes—but he loved it. He'd gladly let Abed corner him.

“You know what changed,” Abed whispered. He tentatively ran his hands over Troy's arms, tracing the lines of his tattoos. 

“I'd still like you to say it,” Troy croaked out, his mouth suddenly feeling very dry. 

Abed sighed. “You changed. You changed everything.” 

“Oh,” was all Troy could muster. 

“You kissed me the day you left,” Abed whispered then, “why?”

“I—I couldn't leave without knowing what it felt like,” Troy mumbled, “without showing you how much I wanted you—loved you.” 

“It was cruel,” Abed sort of growled, “to kiss me and disappear.” 

“I didn't mean to disappear. I never stopped looking for you.”

Abed smiled. “I know that now.” 

Troy grabbed Abed's right hand with both of his own and kissed it. “Will you forgive me?” 

Abed put his other hand on Troy's, and tugged his best friend's hands to his lips, pressing a soft kiss of his own. “I already did.” He bit his lip. “But I didn't look for you. I gave up. Will you forgive _me_?” 

Troy slipped his hands out of Abed's and ran them up his arms, to his shoulders, his neck, his cheeks. “Only if you kiss me,” he whispered. 

“If that's what it takes,” Abed whispered back, and kissed Troy with all the passion of a love lost and found again, kissed him like it was the first time, after fearing for years that their first kiss would have to be their last.

He pulled away and rested his forehead against Troy's. “Don't leave me again,” he begged, “please.” 

“I won't,” Troy tearfully replied, “I couldn't, even if I wanted to. And I really, really don't want to.” He pressed a quick kiss to Abed's lips. “I never stopped being yours.” 

Abed did the same. “And I yours.” He kissed Troy again, letting his lips linger over Troy's a little longer than necessary after, just because he could now, because Troy was there. “I'm really glad you found me,” he whispered. 

“Oh, Abed,” Troy said, his voice low and full of emotion, “I would've done anything to see you again.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you. Kudos. Comments. Bye.


End file.
